The book arch and the wedding

~benj

Just returned back from my sister-in-law’s wedding, which was the cutest/nerdiest thing ever!

Being part of the close family I came across her plans to make an arch out of books, on her side would be her favorite books and on his side his. It was lovely and she was very proud that she put the thing together with only $5!

Well, when a friend and I took a look, what we saw terrified us! The arch was made of reclaimed wire racks cut with a grinder and the sharp edges covered with masking tape. But the way in which the thing was supposed to stand was with some small pieces of wire rack bent in a 90 angle and held together with a combination of twine, velcro and fishing line, and supposedly the weight of books on the floor was going to keep it in place.

The structure was perilously reclined against a wall while books where held to the structure by fishing line through their spines. The ingenuity, creativity and MacGyver-ness of it where impressive! But none the less, it was easy to see that if we looked the thing wrong it would tip and fall.

So my friend and I, both engineers (in software, but who’s counting) decided to make it better! All the tools we could find at the Airbnb where we were staying was a pair of hammers, but that would be enough.

Armed with a cheap hand saw, hammer and nails we proceeded to hack together the scrappiest 2x4 structure we could in the few hours left before the wedding. Neither of us was particularly skilled in woodworking and the risk of hammering our fingers was ever present. Nonetheless, we devised on a sticky note a T shaped leg that would take into consideration the stability of it if we pushed it forward, backwards and left or right. After what we called the “fabrication” stage, mostly to sound fancy around all the non-engineers, we came up with what I could describe as the woodworking project for a 4th grade class that would certain win the participation award that was left in the basement of the school with the inscription “at least you tried, 2015”. After all, it was two software engineers doing woodwork!

But the thing didn’t fall!

I couldn’t help but burst out singing

I'm still standing better than I ever did

Looking like a true survivor, feeling like a little kid

During the ceremony the pastor even hit the book arch and it didn’t budge, which I call a success in my book :)

So yeah, I’m very happy that I got to be useful and avoid a possible concussion!

~bartender could I get some champagne and tea? Three cheers for books not falling!